


Earthsea Borealis

by FineSpecimenRetrieved



Series: who i love (girls) [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Courting Rituals, Courtship, F/F, Implied Sexual Content, Jade and Dave are enablers, Just to be safe, Ocean, Pirate Captain!Rose Lalonde, Pirates, Rose is very very gay, Siren!Kanaya, Sirens, Slightly suggestive content? but not really, Theyre both very gay, so is kanaya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 16:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19066534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FineSpecimenRetrieved/pseuds/FineSpecimenRetrieved
Summary: She’d plundered many treasures, had travelled to every location in the seas but… this beauty, this glittering gem of a being easily beat all of them, ten times over.





	Earthsea Borealis

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Pride everyone, have some short Rosemary. I'm gonna be writing a lot of it this month, especially since I finally came out as a lesbian lol
> 
> Big thanks to Izu and Marius who gave me the idea in the first place while we were gushing over Rose Lalonde in an open shirt.

“Come with us.”

It was a gentle demand, longing and desperate, and Rose knew if the siren did not wish to join them in their journey, then she would be gone without any struggle. This was a creature of the waves, a daughter of the sea. Nothing would hold her back, if she did not wish it.

But Rose didn’t expect the siren to agree. She hadn’t thought her demand would be accepted. And yet with a curved smile as wicked as her sabre, jade eyes gleaming in the sun, the siren said yes, something knowing and indulging gleaming in her eyes. The water shimmered against her skin like diamonds as she carefully slunk out onto the small dinghy Rose lowered down, the siren’s bare body illuminated by the golden sun, and Rose felt her heart stop.

She’d plundered many treasures, had travelled to every location in the seas but… this beauty, this glittering gem of a being easily beat all of them, ten times over. She swallowed heavily and tried to avert her eyes from the siren below her, shrugging off her own shirt and handing it to the being when she was hauled up to the deck. The siren looked quizzically at the offered clothing, eyes catching appreciatively on Rose’s own breast bindings and loose pants, and she smirked, a clawed hand accepting the shirt.

She was still mostly bare, still gorgeous and glittering in the light of the sea, but this way the rest of Rose’s crew wouldn’t have an aneurysm. Despite Rose’s own state of undress, she knew they wouldn’t dare try anything with her, not with the threat of scratched out eyes and mutilated hands. And while the siren may be under her protection now… something small and possessive refused to let her crew see this godlike being in such a state of undress. It just… it didn’t feel right. The siren smiled again, teeth glinting in the sun, and something inside her shuddered in delight.

“What’s your name?” she murmured softly, leaning in close to look her in the eyes.

“Upon you, my dearest captain, I offer you my title of Sylph.” Her voice was like the finest silks on the market, smooth and soft with a hint of amusement and danger thrumming in her words. “Perhaps, should we get to know each other more, I will tell you my name.”

“Of course.”

Names had power after all, and Sylph was already offering a branch of trust in accepting her offer to join her crew for a while, to travel the seas with them until she found a new place to settle. Her offer had been impulsive, immediately after swapping only a few words with her, but the horrorterrors lurking beneath her tattoos had crooned at the sight of the siren. Distorted voices had sung in longing and desire, trilling words of promises and fulfilment.

“This one,” they chorused, “this one shall bring you the world and more. Follow, catch and hold onto this daughter of the sea, if you wish for the greatest treasure in the world, dark one.”

Who was she to refuse the request of her elders, her masters, her teachers? She had travelled the seas, but the promise of a treasure greater than the ones she had managed to pilfer anyway lured her closer. But in the end, that had fallen away the moment she met the being’s eyes, opaque jade reflecting sunlight, curled black hair on top a smooth brown face, painted lips carved into a smile.

Rose always had a taste for danger, for the thrill and excitement and the sight of the being before her sent small shocks beneath her skin. Nothing had made her heart beat more, nothing had come close to the buzzing she felt within her veins.

And so, she had asked. And the siren accepted.

Beads of water still dripped from her dark skin, a gentle glow dancing across her arms, and Rose’s heart pounded.

“Come,” she found herself saying, “you will stay in my cabin.”

Jade would tease her for it later, would ask why she wouldn’t trust their newest member in the women’s room, and Rose found she had no answer. ‘For safety,’ she told herself, ‘to let her settle in without the excitement and glee of the other women.’

“Lies,” the voices sang, “but we shall let them be, just for once.”

Sylph was a valuable asset on their voyages, graceful and deadly wrapped in a package of joy and intelligence. More often than not, Rose found herself in conversation with the other woman, telling each other stories of the places they had seen, of the wonders they had touched, of potential places to go next. Dave caught them more than once hunched over a map, pointing out different places and sights. Had he not been her brother, she would have sliced a finger or two off for the winks he sent her.

Jade was just as insufferable, mouth pulled up into a knowing grin whenever she saw them. She would bustle other crew members away when the two of them were in deep discussion, a perfect second mate no matter what. Rose refused to indulge in her crew’s antics, not when it would result in more teasing, so she ignored the sly grins sent her way, the encouraging punches to her arm.

Sylph didn’t seem to notice, but there was something predatory and hungry in her gaze, and Rose felt herself shiver.

Strong, deadly and intelligent women had always been her weakness, especially when they could tear out a man’s throat with inhuman teeth and then turn to flash her a gleaming smile, blood coating her lips like war paint.

Rose was almost stabbed by the enemy captain for her momentary distraction, but a burning desire to prove herself, to show her worthiness had flooded her veins. In a swift movement, she cut off his head. It was a show of strength and agility, of preciseness and cleanliness, since it took an inordinate amount of controlled strength to cut someone’s head off in one movement. From the impressed delight flooding Sylph’s eyes, Rose believed she’d achieved that.

It was easy to grow close to her, to steadily let her original intention of using her as a compass to the world’s greatest treasure fade away. Soon Rose came to expect and find joy in walking into her (theirs, it was theirs together) cabin and finding Sylph lounging on a chair with a tome, glittering green silk hanging deliciously off a brown shoulder.

It was a slow dance between the two of them, attraction and hesitance keeping them from coming that close, from edging into the final steps of acknowledged courtship. She found however, one moonlit evening, that they had accidentally sprung over those steps without knowing, without speaking. It had just been the two of them, slouched in their cabin, a comfortable silence resting between them as Rose’s record player crooned songs in the corner. And then with a snap, Sylph closed her book and stood up, held out a delicate, yet wonderfully deadly hand out to her, her jade eyes lidded and expectant.

“I wish to dance,” she said lowly, like a secret, like a prayer, and Rose found her hand easily raising to meet hers.

“Who would I be, to deny such a beautiful lady?” she murmured back, and Sylph’s face pulled up into a smile that had no right to look as lovely as it did.

It was easy, so wonderfully, damnably easy to slip into a dance with the other woman, to let the sway of music carry them into each other’s arms. Jade met amethyst, hands that had killed and murdered rested gently around each other’s necks, and everything was perfect. Rose smiled and dipped her partner, let the music speed up their dance as the moon gleamed into her porthole and Sylph’s skin lit up like the stars.

‘Oh,’ Rose thought. ‘Oh.’

The horrorterrors were right. Sylph had led her to the greatest treasure of the world all along, had been in her grasp this entire time. And now she held her in her arms, something unspoken but so very loud beating like a drum in her chest.

It was easy to love someone like Sylph, to let the adoration and desire wash over her heart.

Rose placed her face gently in the crook of Sylph’s neck, and smiled at a secret they both knew, but wouldn’t say.

Not yet.

 

* * *

 

They were resting on an inhabited island with the crew off to gather supplies when Sylph grabbed her and pulled her dangerously close, eyes lidded and burning.

“This one believes it is time to tell you her name,” she said, face lit up in mischief and joy, and Rose’s heart pounded.

“Oh?” She prompted, excitement beating beneath her skin, and she couldn’t stop herself from leaning forward, closer to the other, chests almost flush against each other.

Sylph’s fingers traced her tattoos lightly, eyes heatedly watching her reaction. “There is a final task however, a final step before I will tell you. Would you be willing to do this for me, my dearest Rose?”

Rose would give her the sun and the stars if she asked, would burn herself trying to reach it, but that wasn’t what she was asking. Instead she leaned in closer, dangerously close, eyes lidded in challenge.

“Anything for you, my gem.”

Sylph smiled in satisfaction, teeth catching the sun like shards of glass.

“Catch me.”

And like the water itself, she twisted out of reach and darted onto shore.

For a bare moment, Rose paused, before the words sunk in and kicked her into action.

Who would she be to deny such a lovely creature a thing?

Who would she be to let this chase go unanswered?

It was a game of cat and mouse, of missing the other by mere strands of hair. Her laughter echoed in the sky like bells. It only drove her further, made her even more determined to catch Sylph and hold her, and so she let the horrorterrors feed her a sliver of power, just to make her faster, stronger, just for a single second.

The sky had darkened by the time she finally snatched gauzy silk and warm skin, the force of it causing them both to tumble in the sand. The grains glittered like shards in her hair, deadly, gorgeous- _!_

Caught.

She hovered over her, anticipation and delight fluttering in her heart as she looked Sylph into her eyes.

“For my people, there is a ritual,” she started, eyes never leaving Rose’s once. “When two have been together long enough to know that they will have no other, one shall initiate a chase. A final test to see if the other is strong enough, worthy enough to keep those affections.”

A hand as cool as the sea reached up to cup her cheek, sharpened claws resting like pinpricks against her skin, an antithesis of gentleness and danger. Rose loved it.

Rose loved her.

“Have I succeeded, my glorious Sylph?” she asked softly, and Sylph leaned up in answer.

“I bestow upon you my name, Rose Lalonde. You have earned the right to call me Kanaya Maryam, and I shall have no other.”

With a forceful tug, Sylph- no. Kanaya pressed her lips against hers, a quiet kiss of promises and fulfilment, and Rose returned it as much as she could. They sat in the sand still warmed from the evening sun, even as the stars began to gleam above their heads. They were tangled in each other’s embrace in the knowledge that there was no going back, not when the other was all they wanted. When they finally parted, the sky was black as ink, and Kanaya smiled her sharp smile.

“For you my dear, I would give the world,” she promised feverishly, and Rose’s lips curled up in response.

“What use of the world do I have, when I have you instead?”


End file.
